Politics this week

François Hollande, the president of France, held a much-awaited press conference. Most people wanted to know about his alleged affair with an actress, which he said was a private matter before going on to talk about his new plans for economic reform, including tax and public-spending cuts. Mr Hollande’s partner, Valérie Trierweiler, was hospitalised soon after learning of the allegation. He promised to clarify who was now the “first lady” of France soon. See article

Three members of Russia’s special forces were killed and five wounded in a house siege in Dagestan, which also left four suspected militants dead. The Russians have been fighting terrorists in the northern Caucasus for some years. The incident comes just a few weeks before the Olympic winter games are due to start in the Caucasus Mountains.

Protesters returned in great numbers to the Maidan, the central square in Ukraine’s capital, Kiev, after an opposition leader was badly beaten by police. The demonstrators insist they will stay until the government of Viktor Yanukovych goes. See article

Russia said it would lend Hungary €10 billion ($13.6 billion) to finance two Russian-built nuclear-power plants. The deal was unexpected because the right-wing Fidesz government has been more hostile to Russia than was its Socialist predecessor.

David Cameron, Britain’s prime minister, made a renewed push to promote fracking for natural gas, arguing that it could create 74,000 jobs and boost investment. He said that those who are against fracking were “irrational” and almost “religiously opposed”. See article

Law and disorder

Federal troops were deployed to Michoacán, a troubled state in western Mexico, in order to disarm vigilante groups. The vigilantes have been fighting a local drugs gang called the Knights Templar; they want the government to round up the traffickers before they lay down their arms. See article

The publication of a gruesome video showing prisoners who had been decapitated by rival inmates at a jail in northern Brazil prompted public debate about the country’s overcrowded penal system. Brazil has the fourth-largest prison population in the world. See article

Colombia’s FARC guerrillas put forward proposals to regulate drug production in the country. The proposals are one strand of ongoing peace talks in Havana between the FARC and the Colombian government.

Let the people decide

Thailand’s government said that the country’s general election would go ahead as planned on February 2nd, despite more protests in Bangkok. Opposition demonstrators, who want Yingluck Shinawatra, the prime minister, to resign, had called for a shutdown of the capital, the latest in a series of disruptive actions to hit the city. See article

Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, made his first trip to Africa and vowed to increase business links. His visit is widely seen as an attempt to rival China’s growing influence in Africa.

India marked three years since its last reported polio case, the time needed to pass before a country can be declared polio-free. Between 1978 and 1995 as many as 100,000 cases of polio occurred each year in India, which was one of the main sources of the disease’s spread to other countries. The World Health Organisation may formally certify India’s polio-free status next month. India’s health minister called it a “monumental milestone”.

An obstetrician in China was given a suspended death sentence for selling newborn babies from Shaanxi province to child traffickers. The doctor convinced parents to give up their babies by telling them the children had medical problems. Child trafficking is an increasingly common crime in China.

It’s good to compromise

America’s Congress concluded its negotiations on a spending bill to keep the government running until October, thus avoiding another shutdown. Many measures that House Republicans had wanted, such as one removing the administration’s power to regulate greenhouse gases, did not survive, but some did, including on stricter standards for the Internal Revenue Service when it investigates groups such as the Tea Party.

The federal government said it would consider the 1,300 gay marriages that have taken place in Utah since December 20th to be legal. This contradicts Utah’s position; the mostly-Mormon state does not recognise the weddings and it is appealing against a judge’s decision that overturned its ban on same-sex marriage. Meanwhile, a federal judge struck down Oklahoma’s ban on gay marriage, saying his court “knows a rhetorical shift when it sees one” in the law. Gay couples will not be allowed to wed, however, while the state challenges the ruling.

Constitution watch

Three years after Tunisia heralded the Arab spring as the first country to overthrow its long-entrenched dictator, its national assembly was set to endorse a new constitution, the product of a compromise between Islamists and secularists. See article

Egyptians also voted in a constitutional referendum that was boycotted by the Muslim Brotherhood, one of whose leaders, Muhammad Morsi, was ousted as president last July by the military-backed government. A yes vote is expected. See article

Mayhem persisted in the Central African Republic after Michel Djotodia, who became its president in March last year on the back of a rebellion of mainly Muslim northerners, was ousted at the behest of the leaders of the country’s neighbours and of France, whose government said he had lost control. See article

Nigeria’s president, Goodluck Jonathan, signed into law a ban on same-sex marriage and a variety of gay activities. Same-sex couples could face up to 14 years in prison. See article

The International Maritime Bureau, a watchdog, said that piracy off the coast of Somalia dropped sharply last year to only 15 recorded incidents.

Israel’s former prime minister, Ariel Sharon, died on January 11th, eight years after falling into a coma while in office, following a stroke. He was revered and reviled: a butcher in the eyes of most Palestinians, a war hero to many Israelis—and yet, in the end, a possible peacemaker for both. See article